


A Quest of a School Year

by thatmartiangirl



Category: Senyuu.
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Gen, M/M, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-17
Updated: 2018-04-03
Packaged: 2018-04-15 05:58:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 12,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4595514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatmartiangirl/pseuds/thatmartiangirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alba Fruhling is a new student at Senyuu High, home of the Demons. He's determined this year to actually make friends, but sometimes it's difficult, and who does Ross think he is? Crea's sweet, Teufel's never awake during class, and is that a spark of romance between Alf and Elf? Whatever's happening, it's going to be an adventure for sure!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Start of a New Day

            Alba Fruhling could hear the ticking of each second as it passed, signaled by the wall clock to the side. As he stood, for the first time, in front of his peers, he tried to calm his breathing. Why had the teacher asked him to stand there as the rest of the class trickled in and sat down? Well actually, Alba half knew the answer; he was the new student. His family, consisting of him and his mother and father, had just moved from only a couple towns over. His old home was close enough that he was vaguely familiar with the area, but far enough that he had to transfer over to a whole new school system.

            Tick

            Tock

            Tick

            Tock

            The second hand only seemed to get louder and louder as the class got fuller and fuller. _Calm down_ , he warned himself, _this is a good opportunity to meet people, don’t mess this up_. It was true, this move was probably good for him. After all, he didn’t leave behind a single friend at his last school, so with a whole new pool of people who have never heard about how embarrassing he was, he had the chance to make a friend.

Yes, Alba Fruhling was going to be optimistic this year!

As the morning bell went off, his teacher, Mr. Attena, started by saying that they had a new student and gestured towards Alba, who had now been awkwardly standing in front of everyone for a least the past 5 minutes. Alba then brightly introduced himself and mentioned how excited he was to meet everyone, before being sent to sit at an open desk.

Alba sat down and Mr. Attena jumped into the history lesson. Being new didn’t negate his need to do things right, so Alba attentively scribbled his notes at the lecture droned on, knowing that he was going to have to do so much make up work to catch up. Thankfully, it was only the third week of class, so catching up wasn’t going to be too hard; he just needed to befriend a classmate. That was going to be the major problem.

About halfway through the class, the PowerPoint lecture was finished, and Mr. Attena began to pass out a worksheet to work on in pairs. When he made it to Alba’s seat, he stopped.

“I never really got to introduce myself to you,” the short, elderly teacher mentioned, “The schedules name me as Mr. Attena, but all my students refer to me by my first name, Rudolf. Feel free to stop by my classroom if you need help catching up.”

Alba looked at his worksheet, and since it was a partner activity, he knew he had to work on it with the person next to him, if what the rest of the class was doing was any sort of example.

“I’m Alba!” he said to the person sitting next to him, as he extended his arm.

“I heard you introduce yourself,” his neighbor said, clad in a navy blue tee and a wine colored scarf, “Do you take me for some sort of idiot?”

“No!” Alba said, shooting up his arms in defense, “I didn’t mean to imply anything like that! I just wanted to know what your name was!”

“I’m Ross,” he said, looking down at his sheet instead of at Alba, “What’s the answer to question one?”

Alba did not pick up on the fact that Ross was only copying his answers until the worksheet was completely finished. He was actually a little angry and upset, but before he could confront his partner about it, the bell rang and Ross bolted towards his next class. Grumbling, Alba packed away his notebook, trying not to let this anger ruin his first day at a new school.

“Is he always like that?!” Alba asked aloud to no one in particular. He might need to consider asking about changing seats if this sort of thing were going to continue. He wasn’t going to be the one who did everyone else’s assignments!

“Yeah, but at least he’s not like Teufel or Ares,” a voice said from behind him, “He sometimes helps a little. He's rude though.”

Alba turned around and saw someone a few inches taller than him, with a dark tan, spiky hair, and a green tank top.

“Ah, how rude am I not introducin’ myself! I’m Elf November!” the classmate said, sticking out his hand for a handshake, “You said yer name was Alba, right?”

Alba nodded his head and shook Elf’s hand. Ok, this guy had a firm grip.

“So where’s yer next class? I can help you get there!”

Alba looked down at the schedule he had printed that morning, “Uhh, I have English 11 with Mr. Lyman Oz Baum in C201.”

“So do I! I can walk you there!”

Alba felt a wave of relief. This guy seemed maybe a little too eccentric, but definitely nice enough. Maybe he would leave school today with a budding friendship after all!

As they walked to their next class, Elf babbled on about Mr. Baum, “He’s the soccer coach, so most students here call him Coach Baum. He has this really cool lookin’ scar on his face, nobody knows how he’s got it. Sometimes he doesn’t really act like he knows what he’s doin’, but he’s a pretty chill teacher.”

When they finally reached the class, Alba wasn’t really sure if he was going to like Mr. Baum or not. Elf walked over to his seat while Alba hesitantly approached the teacher’s desk. It appears Elf had not been exaggerating about the teacher’s face scar. As Alba approached, Mr. Baum looked up from a pile of what seemed to be graded quizzes.

“Uh, who are you?” Mr. Baum said.

“I’m the new student, Alba Fruhling.”

“Oh good! I thought I was forgetting my dear students names for a second.”

Alba continued to stand in front of the desk as Mr. Baum cleared up some of his papers. A moment later, they dropped onto the floor, “Wait a second, did you say Fruhling?” When Alba nodded, he continued, “You wouldn’t happen to know a Midnight Fruhling?”

“Yeah he’s my dad,” Alba said, wondering who Mr. Baum was. He seemed very excited about Alba’s dad, but Alba had never heard anything about a Lyman Oz Baum in his dad’s stories of the past.

“Well your dad and I are old high school pals! He completely showed me up at soccer my Junior year! Since then we were friends!”

“My dad played soccer?!” Alba asked, rather confused. His dad’s tales were barely rooted in reality, as Alba was well aware, but at the very least, some facts could sneak their way in.

The bell rang, signaling the beginning of class.

“Good morning class!” Lyman shouted over the chattering voices of his class, “Today we’re welcoming a new student, Alba Fruhling!” He pointed to a student sitting next to an empty seat “Crea Crossfield! I’m leaving him in your hands! Make sure he knows what he’s doing!”

The first thing Alba noticed about Crea was his black and white dyed hair. The second thing was his cheery personality.  
            “Leave it to me!” Crea said, striking what he must have deemed was a cool pose.

Alba walked over to the desk and dropped his bag on top before plopping down in the seat beside Crea.

            “So you’re new here? Where are you from?” Crea asked eagerly.

            “Oh I’m only from a few towns over, in Turtle,” Alba replied, disappointed in how boring his answer must have sounded.

            Crea’s excited face didn’t dim, “Oh so that means you know the area a little! That’s good. Is moving such a big change, or do you think it’s weirder when you only move a little bit?” and like that Crea was off talking a mile a minute.

            English passed in a blur, and then he said goodbye to Crea before heading to German II. He didn’t recognize anyone in there as anyone he had talked to yet that day, and nothing happened notably in there. After German, he went to Science, and took care to sit far, far away from that Ross kid from first period, so they weren’t paired for a lab that Alba would do by himself. Lunch followed Science and that was how Alba found himself looking around the cafeteria.

\--

Crea was in such a good mood after meeting Alba second period. He just had a good feeling about him, and when Crea had a good feeling about something, he was often right.

            “Hey Crea did you meet that new student?” Ross asked as Crea sat down across from him.

            “Yeah!” Crea replied, “Alba, right? I think he’s great! Oh hey! Look! He’s in this lunch!”

            Ross looked up from his tray and followed Crea’s finger to see Alba standing like a confused lost puppy, holding his lunch tray in the middle of the cafeteria.

            “He looks like some sort of idiot with no place to sit,” Ross smirked as he returned his focus to his lunch.

            “We should invite him to sit with us!” Crea suggested. Ross clenched his fork and opened his mouth prepared to make his threat, but before he could stop it, Crea stood up and shouted loudly, “Alba! Over here! Sit with us!”

            Ross had facepalmed, but between his fingers, he was looking at Alba. Wow Alba looked cute when he smiled in relief, and nope Ross was going to put a stop to attraction before it even happened. Not this time. No.

            “Hi Crea!” Alba said cheerily as he approached the table. He put down his tray on the table next to Ross and slid into the bench. He hadn’t even finished sitting when Ross took a fry off his tray.

            “Hey! What was that for!?” Alba shouted.

            “It’s just a fry,” Ross said, “Did it really mean that much to you?”

            “Oh it’s you,” Alba said, and Ross actually felt a little hurt about how disappointed the statement sounded.

            “Oh does Alba know Shion?” Crea beamed, not quite realizing the tension.

            “Shion?” Alba asked.

            “Crea’s nickname for me,” Ross said. Why had Crea invited Alba to sit with them? He shot Crea a glare as he took a bite of his apple.

            “So what class have you got after this?” Crea asked Alba, trying to avoid Ross’s sudden death glare.

            The three ate lunch in an awkward half conversation, carried mostly by Crea.

\--

            Alf Parkinton was most definitely not in love with his best friend. Not at all.

            “So the new student’s name is Alba and he seems cool. I think I wanna invite him to sit with us fer lunch sometimes,” Elf continued, babbling about how awesome that dumb new student seemed.

            Ok so maybe Alf was super jealous, but that didn’t mean that he loved his friend romantically. They had just been together since elementary school, and he didn’t want that messed up, that was all. At least that’s what he told himself as he bitterly tore bites from his PB and J sandwich, growing more and more impatient as Elf continued to gush about Alba. He had gotten to where Elf was describing Alba’s warm brown eyes before he had enough.

            “I’ve got to print something in the library!” Alf said, masking his anger, as always.

            “Ok! I’ll see you after school!” Elf called after him.

            _I hope Alba’s straight_ , Alf found himself thinking, before scolding himself for being so selfish. It should be enough for Elf to be happy.

            _Should be_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm making this an American High School AU instead of a Japanese high school AU, largely because American high schools are what I have actual experience with.  
> I found Rudolf's last name on a wiki, so I'm using it. I figure he'd be that creepy teacher that almost everyone's uncomfortable with, but still has a job for some reason.


	2. Dynamic Duos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alba meets some more classmates, Ross walks Crea home, Teufel is lazy, and Alf may have to confront his feelings sooner or later

Alba walked to his art class. He wasn’t sure exactly why he had chosen art as his elective, other than the fact that the music class he wanted to take was unfortunately full. He knew he couldn’t draw, but there was no harm in trying something new, right? Besides, he could always try to sign up for an after school club for music.

            Despite the fact that he had arrived before the bell rang, some students were already immersed in their projects. A brief talk with the teacher revealed that it was open seating. The tables in front of him seemed cluttered already, especially with the art supplies everywhere.

            Eventually Alba found a seat at the emptiest table in the room. With only two other students it stood out, as some other tables had upwards 8 people. One of the students had shoulder length raven black hair and a shirt advertising some show called “Ninja Star” while the other one had bright red hair and looked like some sort of punk. Actually, now that he got closer both looked fairly menacing. Raven-haired ninja shirt was sucking on a lollipop with his face hidden while red haired punk had his arms crossed and leaned back in his chair, eyes closed.

            _Maybe I should turn around_ , Alba thought for a second, but he didn’t move. Instead his legs remained rooted to the ground in fear. There had to be a reason that in the crowded class, this table was nearly empty, and if he couldn’t sit with the menacing duo, where was he going to sit? His eyes darted back and forth through the class, thinking of trying to find another place to sit, but before he could move, he was interrupted.

            “You going to sit with us or not?”

            Alba looked towards the voice to find out it was that of the red haired punk, who hadn’t moved or even opened his eyes. The raven-haired ninja fan on the other hand was now staring at him, looking much less intimidating from this angle.

            “Uh…sure,” Alba said before sitting across from the duo. Not wanting to pass up the chance at making more friends, Alba brightly introduced himself, “Hi! I’m Alba. I’m new here and just transferred into this school.”

            “Hello hello! I’m Janua!” The raven-haired guy replied, “And this is my friend Samejima.”

            “Yo,” Samejima said, opening his eyes to look at Alba a moment before closing them again.

            “Nice to meet you,” Alba said, much more confidently now that he had begun conversation.

            “Likewise,” Samejima said, sitting up as the bell rang.

            Alba looked back at Janua’s shirt, “What’s _Ninja Star_?”

            Janua face lit up at the question, “You don’t know?! _Ninja Star_ is only the greatest show ever! It’s the adventure of a lone ninja trying to revive the sacred artifacts using his power of the Ninja Star!” Janua then struck what Alba could only assume was some sort of ninja pose.

            “Heh,” Samejima smiled looking at Janua, “’tis an epic adventure of a worthy man.”

            “I might check it out later,” Alba said, with little intention of actually checking it out.

            “So Alba, you’re new here?” Samejima said, turning the conversation towards Alba.

            “Yeah,” Alba said sheepishly, “I just moved here from Turtle, so I didn’t move far. But I’m excited about new opportunities here.”

            “With an attitude like that you’re sure to prosper here!” Samejima said, clenching his fist, “Seize today!”

            Alba knew it didn’t really make sense, but this guys confidence in him made him feel better. Sure Ross was being a major jerk to him earlier, but this year was already looking better than his previous ones. Crea was being super nice to him earlier, even though he appeared close to Ross, that Elf guy had been friendly, and now Janua and Samejima were being kind to him.

            “Hey speaking of seizing the day, what are you doing after school, Alba?” Janua asked, doing another ridiculous ninja pose.

            “I have to go speak to the guidance office,” Alba replied, “They want to make sure I’m adjusting alright.”

            “Of course,” Janua nodded, “But when that’s done you should consider joining the soccer team!”

            “Mr. Baum’s the coach, right?” Alba asked, remembering what Elf was telling him earlier.

            “You’ve met Coach Baum-dono?” Janua asked.

            Alba wasn’t exactly sure what was up with the dono thing, but he answered, “Yeah he’s my English teacher.”

            “You really should join!” Janua said.

            “Practices are a blast,” Samejima agreed.

            “And you can drop gym if you play a sport and have that count as your credit,” Janua added. “I tried to get the school to start a martial arts sports team, but there wasn’t enough interest.”

            “It was just Janua and me.”

            As Janua went on to talk about his super awesome ninjitsutsus, Alba looked around the class. Most students had already started working on projects, but a few weren’t. One actually seemed to be taking a very peaceful nap, while another student was carving something into the desk. The teacher, Ms Rubberneck, did nothing at all to promote actual work, instead electing to sit at her desk reading gossip tabloids. On the board was only a note of “work on your self portraits independently.”

            That was not a good way to teach! Alba was there to learn, not to scribble on a sheet of people while the teacher read magazines! Perhaps this was not a normal day with this teacher, but that seemed unlikely. Luckily, Janua and Samejima soon pulled out their projects, and they were more than helpful aiding Alba in starting his.

            His last class that day was math, which went by about as slowly and painfully as he expected. Ross was in that class too, and Alba went out of his way to make sure he was far away from him.

            Out of the 6 classes he had gone to so far, 3 of them had Ross in them. Science and Math weren’t going to be as bad, since they weren’t sitting near each other, but they sat right next to each other in History, which he hoped didn’t regularly have partner activities. Since they were on a rotating schedule, there was still one class he hadn’t had yet: gym. There were many horrors of gym, and he wasn’t sure he would be able to stand that sort of humiliation in front of Ross. If they were in that class together, he was going to have to really consider joining the soccer team.

            At the meeting with his guidance councilor, he assured her that everything was fine.

\--

Ross wasn’t in the mood to stay after today. He didn’t particularly like going home, but he didn’t want to see Alba’s dumb face again. Crea was bound to do something like invite Alba over to hang out, and Ross definitely did not want Alba seeing where he lived. So instead of going to the library like he normally did after school, he went to pick up Crea from his home economics class to go home.

On the long walk back Crea was talking about how good his apple pie came out and how they should find reason to bake apple pies more often. Then we went rambling about how he could make so many tasty treats once the class was over. Ross nodded along, listening to his friend’s excitement. He was kind of envious of Crea, to be honest, since Crea had managed to hang on to his honest optimism through everything, though from the start Ross was never a bucket of sunshine.

Meanwhile, Ross found himself thinking about the new kid, Alba. From what he could tell, this guy had some sort of naivety-what kind and to what extent, Ross wasn’t sure- as well as lacked confidence. If Ross was still being honest with himself, he found that he actually quite liked Alba, so by the time the duo reached the front door of their foster home, Ross decided that the next day, he was going to make more of an effort to talk to Alba.

\--

            Teufel Diabolos felt clever. After 2 years of hard work to finish most of his academic credits early, now his schedule was clear to load up mostly on electives. His last class today was home economics, which was mostly baking, and sometimes sewing. Today they had baked apple pies.

            “Hey Teuf,” a coy voice said as an arm wrapped around his shoulder. His gaze drifted upwards to see the arm’s owner, his blue haired…errr…for lack of a better term his blue haired friend.

            “Oh, hey Ares.”

            “You’re heading to my soccer practice today, right?” Ares asked.

            “No,” Teufel replied, totally straight faced, “Why would I go sit on a bench and watch people run around?” And there were going to be too many people he didn’t know there, he thought to himself.

            “Because you’d be able to see that really cool trick I’ve been working on!” Ares had now released Teufel from her grasp, and had her hands on her hips, standing tall like some sort of action hero…or something.

            “I think I’ll pass,” Teufel said, not even bothering to continue looking at her.

            He wasn’t looking at her, but they had done this sort of routine enough times that he already knew that she was clutching her chest when she called out, “You will rue the day you mocked the great Ares!”

            Teufel laughed quietly to himself as he walked out of the school and towards his bus.

\--

            Even after school, Alf found himself annoyed at Elf’s rambling about the new student. At least now it was mixed into conversation about other things, but every time Elf brought up Alba’s name, Alf felt a pain in his heart and his hand clench into a fist. Despite all this, he was going to try! He was going to be the supportive friend!

            “Somethin’ botherin’ ya?” Elf asked as the two walked towards academic decathlon.

            Alf opened his mouth to answer, but no words came out. Why was Elf making this so much harder? He was normally oblivious! Why now of all times was he observant?! He tried harder and harder to spit out words, but nothing came out.

            Elf immediately became concerned, “Alf? You alright?! Ya know I’m fer sure always willin’ to listen, okay? I’m here fer ya!”

            When Alf looked up, Elf’s arms were opened, offering a hug if needed, and Alf greedily accepted. As they embraced, Elf soothingly stroked Alf’s long blonde hair, and Alf was able to better compose himself.

            “’s ok if ya don’t wanna talk about it,” Elf continued, pulling away and holding Alf at arm’s length away, “But ya don’t hafta keep your emotions all bottled up. I’m here for ya! Ok, Alf?”

            Alf smiled, feeling genuinely better. “Thanks Elf! We should probably get going. We don’t want the rest of the club waiting.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to leave reviews and comments. I love hearing anything, good or bad. Thanks~


	3. Facebook Friends

“Strahl! Ein! Stop showing off! If you try these theatrics during a game the other team’s going to score!”

            It was a normal soccer practice. It all began when Ares had to show off her new move, and just barely messed it up, but then Janua had to show off _his_ new move, inspired by a cool jutsu that the hero of Ninja Star had done in the most recent episode, and sent a ball flying off the field. The two then fell into their daily pattern of trying to one up each other with failing tricks instead of doing their dribbling exercises.

            And now Coach Baum was yelling at them…again.

            “Laps, both of you!”

            Practice went on water break while Ares and Janua raced each other around the track, neither wanting to be showed up by the other. Coach Baum sat on the bench next to Samejima while the team loaded up on water and orange slices.

            “Why are you here?” the coach asked, “You don’t even play, but you’re at almost every practice.”

            “I am here to support my friend,” Samejima said nobly.

            “Ah, that makes sense,” Coach Baum nodded, “Alright then, carry on.”

            Today Janua had finished his 10 laps just slightly before Ares, and was jumping and cheering and waving to Samejima from the finishing line, while Ares clenched her fist and was as animated as ever.

\--

            Alba fell onto his bed after getting home from school. Boxes were spread throughout his house, and he had so much unpacking to do, but the day really drained a lot out of him. He needed a nap.

            Next thing he new, his mom was knocking on his bedroom door. A groggy glance to his clock revealed it was 5:47, over two hours since he lied down.

            “It’s almost time for dinner,” his mom said as Alba sat up, “Your father really wants to know about your first day.”

            J( ＾◡＾)っ

            Alba wiped his eyes and blinked a few times to wake himself up. His mom continued, “Just come downstairs when you’re awake,” before she retreated back downstairs.

            Moments later, Alba grabbed his laptop off his nightstand and logged in. He had just wanted to check his email before heading downstairs, but while he was at it, he opened facebook, despite the fact that nothing normally happened. He didn’t have very many friends after all. When the page loaded, he was surprised to find a little red notification indicating that he had TWO friend requests. Clicking the button revealed that Crea Crossfield and Janua Ein had requested to be his friend. Crea’s profile picture was of himself laughing with an arm around a slightly annoyed but still half smiling Ross, while Janua’s was a color pencil drawing of himself as a Ninja. Alba quickly accepted both requests before rushing downstairs to have dinner with his family.

\--

            Crea sprawled out on the top bunk, which was his. He was reading assigned chapter of _The Catcher in the Rye_ somewhat absentmindedly. Personally, he didn’t really get it. He was only on chapter 3, but already getting somewhat exhausted by how cynical Holden was being. He was thankful when Ross came into the room and plopped on the bottom bunk as he munched on an apple. Finally there was a distraction.

            Ross was thinking about how he could approach Alba the next day. At the moment it seemed that the new student had started disliking him. Ross thought about maybe being slightly more helpful in history the next day. As he contemplated the idea, Crea’s head suddenly popped down from the bunk above him.

            “Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiion.”

            “What do you want Crea?”

            “I’m bored!”

            “Are you done reading that book for English?”

            “No, I’m not getting it!” Crea whined.

            “Do you want me to hit you over the head with it?” Ross asked.

            “No thanks!” Crea quickly replied, sitting back up on the top bunk. Crea stared down at the cover for a minute before asking, “Shion, did you like reading _The Catcher in the Rye_?”

            “I just used Sparknotes,” Ross replied.

            Crea sighed. The room was fairly quiet, except for the sound of Ross biting and chewing an apple. Since Ross wasn’t being cooperative as far as distractions went, Crea decided to give up on that and pull out his netbook. Maybe someone online would be helpful! He logged onto Facebook and noticed a little red notification.

            “Alba accepted my friend request!” Crea exclaimed.

            This got Ross interested, and in moments he had climbed up and plopped down next to Crea. “Let’s go through his profile,” he suggested as Crea clicked on Alba’s page.

            “Wow he only has 21 facebook friends, so disappointing,” Ross remarked.

            “Don’t be mean! He might just be selective about friending people!”

            “Then why would he friend _you_?”

            “Because I’m awesome,” Crea smiled.

            “No you aren’t,” Ross said, letting a laugh seep into his voice.

            Crea elected to ignore him. “Hey look, he has some photos.”

            Ross switched his target back from Alba, “He still sleeps with a stuffed animal!” The image of Alba was taken fairly recently; he looked to be about the same age. He was in the backseat of a car curled up, arms wrapped tightly around a teddy bear, sleeping. It was posted by Midnight Fruhling with the subtitle “I love my son <3 Look at him nap!”

            “His teddy bear is so cute!” Crea said before flipping through more of Alba’s pictures.

            Once they got back a few months in Alba’s tagged photos, they discovered photo after photo of Alba, but with pink dyed hair and black clothes with metal clasps, rings, and zippers.

            “He used to be scene,” Ross practically snorted.

            “Is it scene? Or is it more emo?” Crea asked.

            “I don’t know, but look at him!”

            “His clothes look cool though,” Crea said, “I wonder what I would look like dressed like that?”

            Ross rolled his eyes, “Don’t.”

            Crea looked back to the screen, “Ooooh, look! Alba’s online now! Maybe we can chat!”

            At this moment, Ross decided to climb back down and plop back down on his bunk. He had his own homework to be doing, after all. As he went through his list of homework, he started to regret taking two science classes, especially back to back. Alba was in his biology class though, and that had promise to be exciting.

            Meanwhile Crea had early messaged Alba:

hello! ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ

 

Alba:

Hi Crea.

 

Crea:

what’s up?

 

Alba:  
I just finished eating with my family. How about you?

 

Crea:

i’m hanging out in my room

Crea paused then called down to Ross, “Should I tell Alba you say hi?”

“No.”

Crea:

shion doesn’t say hi…

 

Alba:

…

Why…?

Why would you even bring it up then?!

 

Crea:

do you want me to tell him you say hi?

 

Alba:

Why would I want to say hi to him?!?

 

Crea:

so…no?

 

Alba:

NO!

 

Crea:

no as in don’t or no as in no not no?

 

Alba:

No as in don’t!

 

            “Alba doesn’t say hi either,” Crea called down to Ross.

            “Tell him I don’t care.”

Crea:

he said he doesn’t care

he’s kinda mean

 

Alba:

I noticed!

…

Is he in the same room as you?

 

Crea:

yeah

…

we’re foster brothers!

 

Alba:

…

Oh

Really?

 

Crea:

yeah

 

Alba:

Like orphans or something?

 

Crea:

i am

shion doesn’t like to talk about it

 

Alba:

Ah, sorry!

 

Crea:

it’s ok~

i don’t even remember my parents and everything

and i’ve been friends with shion since i can remember!

i can’t really say much more though

 

Alba:

I don’t want to pry or anything!

 

Crea:

ok~

 

            Alba stared at his computer. He wasn’t quite sure the details of Crea and Ross’s situation, but he was being truthful when he said he didn’t want to pry.

            Alba and Crea managed to shift to more lighthearted friendly conversation, talking about their English class, and how Mr. Fruhling barely even remembered Coach Baum existed. They discovered they were both in the same gym class the next day, which excited Alba until

Crea:

yeah! shion’s in our class too!

 

            And then Alba wasn’t sure he wanted to go to gym class the next day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And the hinting at stuff begins!


	4. Group Effort

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gym class goes wrong, people forget their homework, and a new project gets announced

            Gym class was always a pain in general.

            It was even more of a pain first thing in the morning. And still even worse when Ross was in the same class.

            In short Alba was preparing for literal hell.

            He arrived at the locker room, pulled out his combo lock, and shoved his stuff into his locker. Since Ross was probably going to be judgmental when he showed up, and the other reason, Alba quickly took his gym clothes to a stall to change.

            Once clad in his black v-neck tee and green gym shorts he stepped out into the gym. It reeked of sweat and body sprays. The floor dented in some places. Over to the side, he saw a pile of foam balls and his heart dropped. They were playing dodge ball, weren’t they?

            “Alba-Dono!” a voice called from behind him. He turned to see Janua and Samejima coming out of the locker room.

            “What’s with the dono?” Alba asked, still not quite sure what it meant.

            Janua smirked and crossed his arms, “Heh! It’s only what all the ninjas say in Ninja Star when referring to each other!”

            Alba had no clue what this Ninja Star thing was, but obviously Janua really enjoyed it. They had only had 2 conversations, but it was very obvious. Speaking of their conversations…

            “Why do you have gym?” Alba asked, “Aren’t you both on the soccer team?”

            “I’m not,” Samejima said, “I go to every practice to cheer on my friends!”

            “It makes more sense to join at that point!” Alba said.

            “I like gym!” Janua said, “It gives me a chance to practice my awesome ninja skills!”

            Alba was thankful that he was making friends, but these two were often a little hard to follow.

            “I’m very good at dodge-ball!” Janua continued, “So it’s exciting, degozaru!”

            Alba elected to not ask about the degozaru, and instead ask the more pressing question, “Isn’t dodge-ball banned? I thought school’s had stopped doing stuff like that, I mean-”

            He didn’t get to finish that question because at that moment the back of his head met with one of those foam balls flying at full force. Alba fell flat on his face. He could already feel the blood dripping from his nose.

            “Ow!” he cried as he heard 2 sets of footsteps running towards him.

            “Are you alright?” someone asked. Alba quickly recognized the voice as Ross’s. “What happened?”

            Perhaps he was kinder than Alba thought. “Someone hurled a dodge ball at my head,” he explained as he sat up.

            “That was me,” Ross continued, smirking a little.

            “You jerk! What was that for?!” Alba asked. Blood was staining his gym clothes and the gym floor.

            “I’m going to go get Coach August!” Crea said, “I’ll be right back! Stay here Alba!”

            As Crea ran off Alba frowned at Ross. What a jerk!

            “Stop tilting your head back,” Ross said.

            “Huh?”

            “Lean your head forward and pinch your nose,” Ross said, “If you lean your head back blood will drip down your throat.”

            Alba did as told, though this made it harder to glare at Ross.

            Crea suddenly appeared again, Coach August close behind.

            “Oh no,” August said, crouching down to get on Alba’s level, “You should get to the nurse. Ross take him there.”

            Alba was about to object when Ross hoisted him up and dragged him away from the gym. Perhaps Ross wasn’t as terrible as originally thought.

            The nurse instantly sent Ross back to class, so Alba was left alone, wondering if maybe he really had misjudged Ross.

            …

            But it was that jerk’s fault he was injured in the first place!

\--

            Alf had sat patiently in his AP Biology class waiting for Elf to show up. It was one of the only two classes the pair shared, since Elf didn’t have the work ethic to take all AP classes like Alf was, but he had encouraged Alf to take many AP courses, since that was the sort of thing Alf was into. But Elf was in both AP Bio and AP Latin with him!

            Or at least he was supposed to be. When the morning bell rang and announcements began to play, and Elf had still not appeared yet, Alf started to wonder if he was ditching class again. The announcements ended and Alf fiddled with the zipper to his new jacket from yesterday’s academic decathlon meeting. The team had decided to pool money together to get “varsity jackets.” Honestly Alf loved it, and was probably going to wear it every single day.

            The teacher called out “Elf November,” and there was no quick “here” reply. Alf slouched in his chair. He was going to leave class to find Elf if it came down to that! He wasn’t going to let Elf get a C in a class he was smart enough to get an A in because he kept ditching!

            The teacher had finished calling attendance and had moved onto collecting their lab reports. Alf passed his forward as the urge to run out of the classroom consumed him. Worry picked his mind. What if Elf wasn’t just ditching? What if he was somehow hurt on the way to school?

            Alf took a deep breath. He was probably ditching like he did every other day. Normally he hung around in the library, so that’s where Alf was going to check first. Then the B wing bathroom. There were a few other places Elf could be hiding too, and sometimes he switched it up to avoid teachers who might be looking for him, so Alf’s mental map got busy.

            As Alf raised his hand to ask to use the bathroom, the door burst open and in walked Elf, already holding his pink late pass from the office.

            “Sorry,” he said to the teacher as he gave her his slip, “There was an accident on my way and traffic got really backed up.”

            Elf eagerly made his way over to the seat next to Alf and plopped down. The teacher continued with the procedure for today’s lab and Alf tried to pay attention, though he missed the beginning in his worry. Eventually they were given their worksheets and walked down to the labs.

            “I thought you were ditching,” Alf said as they walked with their classmates.

            “Nah,” Elf said, “I wouldn’t ditch this class. Yer in it! Unless ya wanted to ditch with me? That could be fun!”

            Alf felt the blood rush to his face and looked away, “You know I wouldn’t ditch.”

            “Yah, ‘course you wouldn’t. I know. You wouldn’t happen ta have the homework? I forgot ta do mine.”

            “Elf!”

            “Please?”

            Alf sighed, “Fine, but at least change the wording a little this time!”

\--

            “Why didn’t you apologize to Alba?” Crea asked Ross as the class had stopped for a water break.

            “I thought I did,” Ross said.

            “No, you just told him you were the one who pelted him in the back of the head! It made it sound like you were aiming for his head!”

            Ross took a long drink from his water bottle before saying, “I wasn’t aiming for his _head_. I just wanted to make him jump a little.”

            “Don’t be mean _Shi_ on!”

            “I helped him to the nurse, didn’t I?”

            The coach took that moment to announce that everyone should hustle to the locker room so that they had enough time to change. The duo followed instructions.

            “Don’t you have your next class with him?” Crea asked, “What are you going to do if he’s mad at you?”

            “Mock him probably,” Ross admitted.

            “SHION!”

            “Are you getting all jealous? Like ‘oh I’m the only one Shion gets to mock!’” Ross laughed.

            Alba walked into the locker room at the point, 2 cotton balls shoved up his nose. When he noticed them looking his way he pointed down at his (slightly bloodstained) gym clothes and said, “I need to change.” He quickly grabbed his clothes from his locker then darted to the stalls to change.

            Ross and Crea never felt any need to change in the stalls, so they continued conversing as they changed.

            “I forgot to do my math homework last night,” Crea frowned, “I hope it doesn’t get checked.”

            “I thought you finished everything?” Ross asked.

            “I thought I did, but I didn’t!”

            Janua’s head popped out from behind a corner, “Crea-dono forgot to do his homework?” He then jumped out and tried to pose, but tripped and stumbled and fell. “I can help!” he said as he got back up and posed. Fumbling through his backpack he found a folder with some ninja anime character drawn in colored pencil on the front. He swiftly opened it up and thrust a sheet towards Crea. “Last night’s homework. Janua saves the day!”

            Crea decided to leave with Janua and Samejima, since they were all in the same Math class, so Ross was left alone in the locker room.  He finished dressing and picked up his bags, but as he was walking out of the locker room, he ran into

            “Alba?”

            His classmate turned around. They had both left the locker room within moments of each other.

            “Oh, hi.”

            “How’s your nose?” Ross asked when they walked from the gym to the hallway.

            “It hurts no thanks to you!”

            “You really should keep a better eye out for flying balls,” Ross scoffed.

            “I WOULDN’T HAVE TO IF YOU WEREN’T THROWING THEM AT MY HEAD!”

            “You complain a lot,” Ross observed, “Is complaining your shtick? You might want to pick a better one.”

            “I’m not complaining to be funny!”

            “What?” Ross gasped, “You’re not?”

            “NO!”

\--

            Ares had taken her usual seat right next to Teufel. He was quietly napping on his desk, but not for long, because Ares decided to hit his desk with full force, sending him jolting awake.

            “Hey,” Ares said as Teufel rubbed his eyes.

            “Is class over yet?” Teufel asked as he stretched his arms up.

            “It hasn’t even begun yet.”

            “Dammit Ares!”

            Ares shot him a mischievous smile.

            Teufel sighed, “How much would it cost for you to let me peacefully sleep?”

            “Fifteen bucks!”

            “That’s way too much!” Teufel argued.

            As they argued over the price of sleep, they overheard 2 loud students enter the classroom. They cut their argument short to watch as that new student guy argued with the scary looking one. Something about how new kid wasn’t trying to be funny or something? Neither Teufel nor Ares particularly cared about watching the pair, so they resumed to their argument about sleep until Rudolf walked in.

            “Morning class!” he said, “I’m going to start class with announcing a new group project. I’m going to let you all pick the groups, so everyone arrange yourselves in groups of 3 or 4!”

            Ares and Teufel glanced at each other. They already knew without saying anything that they were going to be in a group together, but who else would join it?

            Just then another duo tentatively walked towards them.

            “Hi, I’m Muffin, and this is my sister Macaroon,” the boy said, “We were wondering if you wanted to be in our group?”

            Ares looked at Teufel. He didn’t seem opposed to the idea, so Ares turned to the twins and said, “Yeah sure.”

            Poor twins were about to do way more work than they signed up for.

            Meanwhile Alba Fruhling found himself wedged into a group with Elf and Ross.


	5. Rumors of Homecoming

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alba's second day of school continues, and rumors of homecoming start to spread...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look who's back! Look forward to more updates soon! Enjoy the chapter!

            Alba was annoyed. First of all, Ross did not seem like a promising group partner in terms of effort, secondly, Elf kept making small talk instead of focusing on the task at hand. At least they had decided to meet up tomorrow in the library afterschool to work on it.

            In the next class Crea asked if he was ok, and by then his nose was pretty much back to normal. They went over the reading from Catcher in the Rye, which Alba obviously hadn’t been caught up on. Luckily he had read it the previous year at his old school, but he still needed a refresher. Mr. Baum hinted at a future group project and Alba groaned internally and hoped that Elf wouldn’t be his partner in this one too. That guy was a little weird…

            German class was a little more interesting when Alba discovered that Janua and Samejima were also in his class. He hadn’t noticed the day before since he hadn’t known them yet. He waved at the duo before sitting at his seat. Janua enthusiastically waved back as Samejima smirked and nodded. Aside from that the class was pretty much the same. German was lunch period, and like the sciences, took the 3rd and final lunch block.

            “Hey,” Samejima said as they left class to walk to the cafeteria, “You’re going to need a seat at lunch. Do you want to sit with us?”

            Alba gratefully took up the offer. He wasn’t sure what, but something about Samejima was very comforting. He was the kind of person that felt easy to be around. There was a certain weird charisma that Alba envied. Janua was also a friendly presence, though he didn’t have that same charisma.

            The three took a seat in the cafeteria, and were soon joined by one of Janua and Samejima’s friends, who introduced himself as Mortemone II, or Mort for short

            And Mort was a real character. He was wearing a shirt and shorts, both of which nearly matched his skin tone, giving the illusion of nudity. He was also completely bald, and had a tattoo of a drill on his arm. Alba was…super duper confused.

            But aside from that weirdness, lunch went well.

            “Homecomings coming up,” Mort said, “I’m thinking about going.”

            “I’m probably going too,” Janua said, “The soccer team’s really encouraged to go for school spirit’s sake!”

            “Homecoming?” Alba questioned, thinking about how big of a deal it was always at his old school, and how he felt awkward for never going.

            “Yeah!” Janua said, “It’s the school’s fall dance! But it’s super casual here. We don’t even do homecoming court or anything.”

            “You should go, it’s fun,” Samejima added.

            Janua shifted, “I just really hope you know who doesn’t…” he paused.

            Samejima shook his head, “Just reject the guy already. Quit playing with his heart, man up, and tell him you’re not interested.”

            Alba’s confusion must have shown on his face because Mort leaned over and whispered, “This guy keeps asking Janua out, and Janua’s not interested.”

            “Can’t you come with me?” Janua asked.

            “No! This is something you have to do on your own,” Samejima said, “I don’t like to meddle in other people’s love affairs!”

            Janua sighed and lifted his head, “Ok! I’ll do it!”

            “Good.”

            Just then, a blue haired girl walked up to their table. Alba recognized her from their German class. “Hey Janua!”

            “Oh hi Ares! Are you going to sit with us?”

            “Nah, I’m good. I was actually going to sneak out into the halls soon. I was just letting you know I’ve been working on new move that will completely show you up at practice today!”

            “I accept your challenge and will surpass you with my new Ninjitsu!”

            Alba zoned out of the conversation, munching on his sandwich and scanning the cafeteria. Looked like Ross and Crea were also in this lunch, and Crea was as animated as usual. Continuing his scan, Elf was also in this lunch. He was sitting with a longhaired blond guy, who seemed really calm in comparison.

            “Later losers!” Ares said as she left, pulling Alba’s attention back to his own table.

Biology passed in a blur, though this time Alba waved at Ross when he entered the room. Ross rolled his eyes and snickered, but didn’t wave back and didn’t really acknowledge for the rest of class, which Alba found kinda rude. Art was enjoyable, though it seems Janua had yet to reject that guy with a crush on him, which seemed to irate Samejima.

After school he walked past a community bullitan board, and an ad for a babysitter caught his eye.

The name to contact was Rchimedes Maoh.

\--

            Crea was being annoying, as usual.

            “You should ask Alba to hang out with us sometime!” he had suggested as the two ate lunch, “He could come by the house, and-“ Crea was cut off by a stab to the stomach.

            “No,” Ross replied, leaving his answer short and sweet. In no way was Alba going to visit his house.

            Crea took a moment to rub his stomach before saying, “If you don’t want him to come by the house, we could always go see a movie or something? Oooh or maybe if he invited us we can visit his house! I wonder what it’s like! I bet his parents are nice! Oh…but maybe they aren’t. What do you think Shion?”

            Ross thought that maybe Crea should stop talking about Alba, but he didn’t really say anything, instead electing to shrug.

\--

            Elf and Alf didn’t have club today, but they had gone to go hang out in the library afterschool, as they normally did when they were free.

            “I’m so excited for homecoming!” Elf said.

            Alf was also very excited. He had decided to be honest with himself, and if he was being honest, he had such a giant crush on his friend that it was ridiculous to deny it. Homecoming introduced many great possibilities. Maybe the 2 would slow dance! Or perhaps the charged air would make Elf realize that _he_ had feelings for _Alf_. Maybe Alf would finally work up the nerve to confess the giant crush urging to be revealed. Maybe…

            “Do ya think Alba would say yes if I asked him to come?”

            …

            There of course was _that_ giant horrible obstacle.

            “I don’t know,” Alf said, “He’s new, so he’s probably not looking to date right away. He could be in a relationship with someone from his old school. You don’t even know if he’s interested in guys.”

            Elf sighed, but then quickly went back to babbling about a plan. Something about the group project him and Alba were doing and spending time together to get to know each other.

            The giant, huge obstacle.

\--

            Ares scanned the crowded hallways, looking for someone. _She should be here…unless she’s stalking…nah, she’s too nervous to_ -

            Ares’s thoughts were cut off but the sight of straw blonde hair with a soft pink hat perched on top. She grinned and went over to talk to her friend.

            After all, homecoming was coming up, and that was going to lead to a lot of fun opportunities for relentless teasing.


	6. The Start of a Facade

            The phone in Alba’s clutched hand rang, and he waited for the answer.

            “Hello?” the voice on the other end of the phone asked after picking it up on the second ring. The voice was soft, sweet, and high pitched.

            “Um, hi!” Alba started, “I got your number from a…uh…poster? For a babysitting?”

            “Oh yes! We need someone to regularly babysit our daughters,” the voice replied, “You see, my husband and I recently heard that it’s better to have a regular babysitter rather than constantly switching, and of course we want what’s best for our little girls.”

            “How old are they?”

            “Oh Ruki is 10, and little Lym is 8. They’re also so nice and well behaved. When can you meet up for an interview?”

            “Uhhh…tomorrow after 6 I think?” He should be done with library stuff by then.

            “Alrighty! I’ll give you the address and you could stop by the house. I want to see how the girls interact with you too!”

            After writing down the address in his notebook, the woman on the other side of the phone said goodbye, as she had other things to attend to.

            Alba then got cracking on his homework.

\--

            “And did you see that awesome move I did at the end of practice!” Janua exclaimed as he and Samejima walked to Janua’s front door.

            “It was pretty great,” Samejima agreed. As soon as Janua opened the front door, a small blonde cat clad in a red bandanna weaved its way around the duo’s legs in display of affection.

            “Hello there Mii-chan,” Janua said, crouching down to scratch his cat’s head, “Did you miss me?”

            The cat let out a cheerful meow as he rubbed his head against Janua’s outstretched hand. Janua picked up Mii-chan and then started climbing the stairs to his bedroom.

            “I’m so excited for tonight’s episode of Ninja Star!”

            “Don’t get too excited; it doesn’t air for another half hour,” Samejima warned as Janua plopped down on his bed. Samejima made his way next to him as Janua pulled out his laptop.

            “I’m nearly a master of wait-jutsu, never fear!”

            As Janua went onto Facebook, he noticed a little notification. It was a message from Alba.

            “Oh, it seems that Alba-dono forgot to write down the German homework,” Janua said in surprise, “It was just notecards for lesson 3 right?”

            Samejima nodded, “Yeah, and we have to write 3 sentences using at least 3 words from the lesson.”

            “Ok, I’ll let him know.”

            Janua was about to say something about the newest student, but it slipped his mind when a facebook message suddenly appeared.

           

Seia Ryuusei

Janua Ein, go to homecoming with me!!!!

We can marry later if you like too ;)

 

            Janua’s face paled. He really didn’t like being cornered like this. Samejima, noticing the fear in his eyes, looked over at the screen.

            “Why did you friend him on facebook?”

            “Mort recommended accepting the request!” Janua answered.

            “He’ll pick up on the fact that you’re not interested if you actually tell him to his face,” Samejima suggested, “You keep giving half answers, and it’s not getting you anywhere. Tell him you don’t want to go to homecoming with him because you don’t like him like that. Outright”  
            “Ok, I’ll do that!” Janua said confidently.

 

Janua Ein

No, I’m not going to homecoming with you!

 

Seia Ryuusei

Aww….why not?? :o

 

            Right then, the brief moment of accomplishment from turning him down went away and Janua did something very, very, very dumb.

 

Janua Ein

Because I’m already planning to go with someone else!

 

Seia Ryuusei

WHAT!?!?

</3

I can’t vbelieve you’d cheat on me like thias Janu!

WHYYY>>!?!

Janua Ein

We weren’t even dating, how is it cheating?

 

Seia Ryuusei

Of course you don’t understand, you never understand!

…

Very well

…

…

I’ll win your heart

I swear

…

I’m going to challenge whoever you’re bringing with you

I’ll win

…

And you will be mine

<3

 

            Janua slammed his laptop shut.

            “So did you finally turn him down?” Samejima asked.

            Janua gave a nervous smile, “Yeah…I turned him down outright this time.”

            “Good, I’m proud of you,” Samejima smiled.

            “The new episode of Ninja star is almost on!” Janua said, eager to change the conversation, “We should probably turn it on, Master Yuki was in a tough spot last week!”

            Hopefully the episode would clear his mind of the nagging thought that he was going to have to find someone to fake-date him for homecoming. Someone willing to put up with the annoyance that was Seia.

            ...Maybe someone like Samejima???

\--

            Alba sighed and closed his notebook as he finished with the German homework. He had already caught up with his English, and just had to finish up his History and Math homework for the next day.

            “Alba sweetie, it’s time for dinner!” his mother called from down the stairs.

            Alba quickly hopped up and went to join his family for dinner. That night, they were having some homemade soup.

            “How was school today sport?” his father asked as he poured Alba a bowl.

            “It was good,” Alba started, “Met a few new people. I sat with Janua and Samejima today at lunch, and they introduced me to their friend Mort.”

            “Sounds like you’re becoming the popular type,” his father smiled.

            “You should invite your new friends over sometime,” his mother suggested, “We’d love to meet them sometime.”

            Alba smiled faintly, knowing that his parents were probably vastly overestimating how popular he was being.

            “Oh, speaking of school, I have a group project in one of my classes. I’m staying late in the library tomorrow to work on it.”

            “Ok that’s fine,” Alba’s mom said, “Make sure to text us if you need a ride when you’re done. We’d be happy to give your friends rides home too if they need any.”

            Alba’s mind flashed to Ross and Elf in a car with his mother, which really wasn’t a pretty picture.

\--

            “That movie looks so good!” Crea exclaimed as the movie trailer concluded. He and Ross were sitting on the couch watching some television show about demon hunters when this beautiful movie trailer appeared during the commercial break. It seemed to be a fun animated family movie coming out in a week.

            “The trailers have been playing for a while,” Ross stated, “How haven’t you heard of this movie before now?”

            “Shion, you know I don’t watch that much TV! That seemed like a really fun movie though! I want to go see it!”

            “Eh,” Ross shrugged.

            “Maybe I could invite Alba to see it with me!”

            “I guess I could come too,” Ross said, trying not to sound _eager_ or anything. No, he was going just because he didn’t want Crea to say something stupid to Alba. Not that he cared that much or anything!

            “You’re interested?!” Crea asked, sparkles in his eyes. This was going to be fantastic! He was going to see a great movie with two great people! Well, he still had to ask Alba first, but-

            “Shhh!” Ross said, throwing a pillow at Crea, “The show’s back on!”

            Crea smiled, not paying too much attention as the show continued in the background.


	7. Bad News

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alba's third day of school is going ok and Ross runs into some unpleasant news

            The next day started with Math, in which Alba and Ross pretty much completely ignored each other. Gym alternated with study hall on days that they had that class, but Alba got permission to spend the class in the library, to help him catch up. He couldn’t avoid Ross forever though, since the next period was History, where they sat right next to each other.

            “I’m giving the rest of the class time to get together and start on your group projects,” Rudolf announced after going over the homework, “Please use your time wisely.”

            Before Alba could even begin to think about what to say to Ross, his thoughts were interrupted.

            “Did your school cover anything about the civil war before you moved here?” Ross asked.

            “Not a lot,” Alba began, “But I think I’m doing ok catching up!”

            Ross decided that now was a good time to attempt friendlier small talk.

            “So, how are you adjusting to life here?”

            “Uh…pretty good I guess.” Alba wasn’t sure why Ross was asking him, and quite frankly, most of Alba’s negative experiences with adjusting so far have been at the hands of Ross, so he wasn’t sure how to respond.

            Elf decided to join them right then, and the focus shifted towards the group project and presentation, which Alba felt was lucky. They had actually hammered away at a lot of it before the period ended, and they all hoped to finish it after school in the library.

            “So are you planning on going to homecoming?” Ross asked casually as he and Alba packed up.

            “Ah, I don’t know,” Alba said, “Janua and Samejima said it was very casual, but I’d still feel a little weird going alone…”

            Ross saw Elf eavesdropping from the corner of his eye and for some reason felt…jealous(???)…when he saw Elf’s calculating face. Elf probably wanted to ask Alba to go with him, and something deep within Ross told him that he couldn’t let that happen.

            Ok so maybe he kinda liked the new student, but there was absolutely no way he was going to let anyone else know that. Especially not Alba.

            “You could always come with Crea and I,” Ross offered, then in an attempt to cover up his genuine interest continued with, “Unless you’re actually the sort of loser that prefers to sit alone on Friday nights.”

            “WHY DID YOU EVEN OFFER IF YOU WERE DOING SO JUST TO INSULT ME?”

            “I didn’t invite you _only_ to insult you,” Ross rolled his eyes, “Do you really think so low of me?”

            “YES!” Alba shouted, but a second later bit his tongue. That was probably too far, and for a brief moment he thought he could see a hint of hurt flash across Ross’s face, but that was soon replaced by a taunting smirk.

            “The main reason I asked was because I knew Crea was going to and I wanted to beat him to the punch,” Ross lied. By this point in the conversation they had walked all the way to C wing, and the two needed to head in different directions.

            “But I guess it would be fun if you came with us,” Ross said.

            “I’ll think about it,” Alba said as he turned towards C wing and headed for his English class.

            “Alba!” Crea called as he eagerly waved, as Alba entered the room.

            “Hi Crea!” Alba said as he dropped his bag on the desk and sat down.

            “Have you seen the trailers for Revenge of the Slime Monster? It’s that new movie coming out soon!”

            “I think so…” Alba started, “Is that the one with those blue monster people?”

            “Yeah! Doesn’t it look good?!”

            “I guess it seems promising…”

            “Shion and I were thinking about seeing it when it’s released! You should totally come with us!”

            Alba looked down, silent for a moment before saying, “I don’t think Ross likes me very much.”

            “That’s ridiculous! What would make you think that?!”

            “He relentlessly mocks me!”

            “That’s how Shion shows affection!”

            “THAT’S NOT THE KIND OF AFFECTION I WANT!!!”

            “Then what kind of affection do you want?”

            Alba slumped down on his desk and murmured into his arms, “I don’t know. Maybe…uh…compliments and stuff?”

            The conversation couldn’t continue since at that moment, Coach Baum decided to start the lesson. As they started analyzing the recent reading of _Catcher in the Rye_ , Alba zoned out, thinking about his upcoming afternoon. It was only his 3rd day of school, and he had already been back and forth so many times on his opinion of Ross, so he decided to abstain from having an opinion for now. Maybe Ross was just one of those overly sarcastic people that you had to get close to before you could understand. Not that Alba had much experience getting close to people.

            He continued gazing around the classroom. On a bullion board by Coach Baum’s desk there were a bunch of pictures of soccer players. Alba was thankful that people here were nice enough to befriend him. Even Crea despite Ross’s hot and cold attitude. He wondered why-

            His thoughts were cut off early when a bunch of classmates suddenly stood up and started racing to the door, leaving their books and supplies at their desk.

            “Come on Alba!” Crea exclaimed, “English takes 2nd lunch!”

            Alba stood up and grabbed his paper bag lunch. “So class is just cut in half by lunch?”

            “Yep!” Crea smiled as he and Alba made their way to the cafeteria.

\--

            Ross was ditching his Latin class. He had been good so far this year about being a good student and attending all his classes, but he really wasn’t up for it at the moment. Looking at his phone for the time, he realized that Crea’s English class was heading to lunch soon. Hmm, maybe he could drop by. Though Crea’s scolding might not be worth it.

            “Hey! Creasion!”

            Ross froze. Very few people knew of that nickname for him, and even less of them were good news. When he turned he saw…some kid he had never seen before. The kid was blonde with longer hair done up in the back and had three black lines tattooed jetting out from under his eyes. His black and yellow jacket more resembled a cloak.

            “Who the hell are you?”

            The kid smirked. His bangs cast a shadow over his eyes, which only heightened his menacing expression. “I’m Juli. Dezember sent me!”

            Dezember…Ross thought about it for a moment. That name rang a bell, but from where?

            “Who?” Ross asked.

            Juli clenched his fists in frustration, “Dezember! Tall! Dark cloak! Works for your father!”

            Oh. His father. Not good.

            “And what does he want me for?” His voice sounded mildly amused, but his heart raced and he was starting to grow lightheaded.

            “We’re planning to return him to his former glory,” Juli said, “And we need some help. Want to team up with us?

            Ross let out a laugh, but felt like he was going to pass out. “Does he forget that it was _my_ testimony that finally got my father arrested in the first place?”

            “Oh no, of course he doesn’t forget! But you might want to think it over! You wouldn’t want a repeat of the Crea incident, would you?”

            Ross’s face paled. He tried to think of some sort of witty comment, but his mind was blank and he felt dizzy. He couldn’t let that happen again. Never!

            “If you don’t want to answer now that’s fine,” Juli continued, “I was just giving you the memo!”

            Juli hurried away, leaving Ross to collapse in the empty hallway.

            Then the bell rang for the shift in lunches.

\--

            “I’m glad you’re in my English class!” Crea exclaimed, “This is one of the only two lunches I don’t share with Shion.”

            _At least Ross won’t be here_ , Alba thought, though his opinion of Ross was ever changing and Ross was being nicer today. But who knows with that guy!

            “Speaking of Ross, he invited me to go with you both to homecoming.”

            “Oooo! He did?! What did you say?” Crea asked.

            “I didn’t get to answer. It was just before class.”

            “Wow,” Crea said, “I wasn’t sure if Shion wanted to come or not, but now I get to go with both of you! It’s going to be so much fun!”

            Their conversation was soon interrupted by a lunch bag being forcefully dropped on the table next to them.

            “Shion! You’re ditching class again?! You know that-” Crea quickly stopped talking upon seeing Ross.

            He was pale and shaking. Actually it looked like he was going to fall over. It was such a startling contrast to the usual confident, ready to mock someone personality that he usually showed.

            “Crea,” Ross said, his voice ready to break, “Can I talk to you in private?”

            Crea nodded, picking up his lunch. “Sorry Alba! See you later!” He called as the two quickly left the cafeteria.

            “Bye,” Alba said, sitting at the now empty table.

\--

            “Hey look! Alba’s sitting by himself! We should invite him to sit with us!” Elf said, making Alf’s shoulder’s fall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I don't update as frequently as I'd like. I'm a very busy person, but thanks for reading!   
> Also things are about to get serious >:)


	8. Awkward Comfortable Silence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything's tense

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Shows up two years late with a new chapter*

            Crea silently patted Ross’s back as the two sat in a quiet, hidden stairwell. Ross didn’t like looking weak, especially emotionally. Crea knew this well, and he also knew that once the moment had passed, they would both pretend it never happened.

            “What happened?” Crea asked gently after a long silence. “You haven’t been like this in a while, Shion.”

            Ross took a deep breath. “You remember all the stuff that went down…with my father?”

            Crea nodded, and patiently waited for Ross to elaborate.

            “Some of his men are apparently planning something.” Ross stared at Crea, trying to plan his words for a long while. “Be careful.”

            Crea smiled, “I’m always careful! Have some faith in me, Shion!”

            Ross didn’t like that answer, and glared down at his barely eaten lunch. “Crea,” he started, voice firm, “You remember, you almost _died_ last time.”

            “But,” he countered, “I’m still here, aren’t I?”

            Ross stared at Crea for what felt like an eternity. “Just, watch your back, ok?”

            Crea nodded, “You got it!”

            The pair sat in silence until bell rang for Crea to return to class, but he decided to stay for a little while longer. It wouldn’t hurt to be a little late.

\--

            Alba was a little worried when Crea didn’t return to class right after lunch. Ross had seemed really shaken by something, and though he had a, to put it lightly, rocky relationship with the sadistic guy, Alba genuinely wanted him to be ok.

            After Crea and Ross left, Elf and one of his friends came and sat by him, and the entire situation felt kinda tense and awkward. Hopefully it was a one-time thing, and today after school wouldn’t be weird with Elf and Ross. Oh crap. Alba found himself worrying that Ross was still going to be all shaken up after school. He was curious about what could have messed up Ross that badly. The guy had seemed untouchable.

            He wasn’t able to pay attention much during the rest of English, but his head snapped towards the door when Crea snuck back in, only 10 minutes before the end of class.

            Alba quickly tore a piece of paper from his notebook and scribbled a note to pass to Crea.

_Everything ok?_

            Crea looked at the note, his eyes flicking to Alba and then to the door, before writing out a response and passing the note back.

_Why wouldn’t it be?_

            Alba decided not to press the issue. Crea was grateful.

\--

            There was only a few minutes left of their lunch, the rest of their friends have left the cafeteria, and Janua decided that it was the perfect opportunity to ask.

            “Hey Samejima?”

            Samejima turned his entire attention over to his friend, “Yeah?”

            Janua took a deep breath. This was going to be a major risk, and Janua was not know for his bravery (in fact he had an unfortunate reputation for being a bit of a coward when it mattered), but he wanted to do this. And not just because what he said to Seia about already going with someone. If he was going to go to this dance with someone, it had to be Samejima.

            “Homecoming’s approaching.”

            “Indeed,” Samejima replied, “We have been talking about it quite frequently these past couple days.”

            Janua nodded. “I know we were both planning on going, but I was wondering if instead of going with a group of friends you would come…as my date?”

            He had trailed off, the end of his sentence barely audible, but as was everything else about the man, Samejima’s hearing was incredible, and it picked up every word.

            Samejima didn’t reply immediately, and Janua, fearing rejection, ended up squeezing his eyes shut. He missed the look of shock plastered on Samejima’s face as he processed exactly what was going on.

            “Janua,” he began, brain slightly blank, “Are you..?”

            The bell rang and Janua jumped up, swinging his backpack over his shoulder. “Just forget I said anything! Don’t worry about it! This never happened!”

            Before he was able to dash from the cafeteria and to their German class to pretend the last 3 minutes of his life didn’t exist, Samejima grasped his shoulder, holding him in place. Janua pointedly didn’t look at Samejima’s face, instead choosing to stare at his feet, as the weight on his shoulder disappeared.

            “Janua, can you please repeat what you were asking me?”

            Students were mostly cleared from the Cafeteria by this point. It’s amazing how much smaller and larger a room could look once you clear it of people. It felt almost too open to say anything, but after a long pause of silence, they were the only ones in the room.

            Janua took a deep breath. “Samejima,” he looked from his own feet to his best friend’s, “Will you be my date for homecoming?”

            Samejima opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off by the bell signaling the beginning of fifth period.

            “We’re late!” Janua shouted, turning to leave, and before Samejima could grasp his hands and respond, Janua was gone.

\--

            Alba was a bit bummed when the bell rang and there was no Janua and Samejima. He slumped in his chair and tried to find someone else he knew, but unfortunately the only other person in class he had any prior interactions with was the blue haired girl, and he hadn’t even talked to her.

            Fortunately he was spared by Janua rushing in about 4 minutes late and sliding into the empty seat next to him.

            Unfortunately, Janua looked like he was freaking out. Which seemed to be a trend in Alba’s social circle today apparently.

            _You okay?_ Alba scribbled onto a sheet of notebook paper for the second time that afternoon, before tearing it and passing it. Janua took the note and stared at it. He seemed to be weighing his options.

            Samejima walked in, and Janua made a point of not looking at him as he sat in the seat behind Alba. Normally Janua would be sitting one row back with him as well. Today, Janua was sitting with his eyes glued to Alba’s note.

            After another ten minutes of zoned out lecture, Janua finally passed the note back, a response scratched in red glitter pen.

            _I do not know._

            The air was tense all class, as the silence screamed at them. Janua and Samejima suddenly seemed like they didn’t know how to talk to each other. Janua fled the classroom the moment the bell rings, before Samejima even packs his backpack.

            “You okay?” Alba asked yet again, as Samejima flung his now packed bag over his shoulder.

            Samejima’s noticeably tensed, but he nods. “Probably.” And then he leaves the classroom too.

\--

            The day ended with Biology, and Ross had barely managed to pull it all together before class began. Alba was in his class to, but in this one Alba sat nowhere near him. Nevertheless, throughout the entire class, he caught him shooting cautious, worried glances. Ross hated it.

            The bell rang with no new information absorbed, and Ross jumped out of his seat and out the door. He had to be in the library soon for the project with Alba and that other dude, but he was still on high alert. He made his way towards the language wing, a slouch and pocketed hands masking the worry that his brisk pace gave away.

            Soon Ross spotted who he was looking for. After his lunchtime breakdown, he had missed their shared Chemistry class, but now he could spot the unmistakable mess of black and white dyed hair.

            “Hey Shion!” Crea beamed when he saw Ross, “What’s up? Haha, you’re face is all dark, are you worried about me?”

            Ross snorted, albeit dryly, “No, I was just going to remind you that I’m not heading home with you today, since you’re an airhead who probably forgot.”

            “No need to be so mean!”

            “I know you’re probably going to get confused, so I wrote out some instructions for the walk back.”

            “It’s a ten minute walk Shion.”

            “So you’ll probably only get lost ten times then.”

            Crea snatched the instructions out of Ross’s hands. “I’m a great adventurer! I don’t need a map to make such a journey. I’ll see you later Shion!”

            “Bye,” Ross said, as Crea walked away.

\--

            Elf was grateful that something had Ross running late, and he was sitting alone at a table in the library with Alba.

            “So, did ya make any homecoming plans yet,” Alf asked as they pulled out their notebooks and textbooks.

            Alba shrugged, “Oh uh…maybe? I haven’t given a definite answer yet, but I’m probably going to go with Crea and Ross, and whoever if they get a group going?”

            “But ya don’t have a _date_? Y’all are just goin’ as friends?”

            Alba paused, “I mean, I guess yeah?”

            “What would ya do if someone were to ask ya?” Elf asked.

            “I don’t know,” Alba said, skimming the table of contents of one of the history textbooks, “I guess it depends on who asks me. Since I just moved here, it’s not like I know a whole ton of people.”

            “Ya know me though,” Elf said, “Don’t sell yourself short, you’re pretty popular.”

            “I guess I am,” Alba smiled as he found what he was looking for, “What about you? Are you and…uh…Alf? Going?”

            “Alf?”

            “Yeah, I thought that was his name,” Alba ducked his head behind his arm, “The guy you always hang around with?”

            “Oh yeah, his name’s Alf.”

            “So?”

            “No, we’re not planin’ on goin’ together.”

            “Oh, sorry. I thought you might be planning on asking him? Sorry.”

            _Huh_ , Elf thought, _Alf wouldn’t be into that sorta thing…would he?_

            “So I’m going to paraphrase this paragraph,” Alba said, gesturing to a passage in the textbook, “You can look up a primary source.”

            Ross meandered in shortly after, and the group worked largely in silence.

            Either awkward comfortable silence.


End file.
